Travel to Isfahan now - Panoramic Photography and Map - 360Cities Isfahan History and Overview Isfahan is located in central Iran, equidistant from the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It sits on both the east-west and north-south trade routes which traverse the country. Isfahan has artifacts dating back to the Paleolithic period, and written history going back to ancient Aspandana. At one time Isfahan was among the largest cities in the world. It has twice been the capital city of Persia -- during the Parthian Empire and again in the sixteenth century Safavid dynasty. It was here that the Safavids declared Shi'a Islam to be the empire's official religion, one of the most important markers in Islamic history. Modern day Isfahan has one of the largest steel mills in the region, an air force base and a major oil refinery. The art and architecture in Isfahan rival anything else in the world in terms of beauty and intricacy. Getting There The airport is found 20km to the north-east of the city; you can reach it by taxi or bus.

The airport shuttle bus goes to and from Enghelab-e Eslami Square. Transportation It costs about 4500 rials to hire a taxi for an hour, and it's a good idea to grab one if you plan on visiting some of the more distant sights. The main bus station is about 2km north of Shohoda Square. Here you can get buses to other cities in Iran, like Yazd or Tehran. Once a week a bus goes up to Istanbul. People and Culture Iranians are extremely hospitable and a growing number of them speak English, so it is possible to get by on a visit without needing to speak Farsi. As always, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the local customs before visiting a new place. In Iran, for example, it's not polite to blow your nose in company and it is not customary for men and women to shake hands. It is better to err on the side of caution if you are not sure how to avoid offending someone. The local currency is the rial, however locals speak about prices in tomans (one toman = ten rials).

The rial is about 12,000IRR to the Euro as of February 2009 so you can see why they have a term for reducing the number by a factor of ten. US dollars and British pounds are the best currencies to bring with you, and be sure to declare all your currency at customs when you enter the country. The food in Iran favors fresh vegetables and fruits along with long grain rice, bread and grilled meats. Kebab is the the most common preparation of meat, did you know that came from Iran? Keep an eye out for Abgoosht, it's a thick lamb stew with lentils and potatos, served with bread in a special container. Things to do, Recommendations The Zayande Roud River is a nice place to go for a walk in some open space. Visit Naghshe Jahan square for the craftsmen's shops displaying amazing handiwork. Make sure you get some Gaz, it's the special candy of Isfahan, delicious! Before it's too hot in the mid-day, go for a walk at Najvan Park, it offers amazing views and a deep silent atmosphere. When you're ready to do some shopping there are several malls to pick from.

Mojtame Park, Osun and Ali Ghapou malls are all located in Chaharbagh Abbasi Street. These are great for clothes, flowers, electronics etc. Jewelry time! Honor Gold Bazzar is a very big one-floor shopping mall where you can find all types of yellow and white gold, as well as silver. 18k gold is the standard of Iran. The Isfahan Old Bazzar is here at the end of the list because we like to save the best for last. This market sells everything you could want and then more. It's very beautiful to visit even if you aren't planning on buying anything, situated in the western wing of Naghshe Jahan Square. Text by Steve Smith. Documentary: The Beautiful And Historic City of Isfahan / Esfāhān, Iran - YouTube Documentary: The Beautiful And Historic City of Isfahan / Esfāhān, Iran Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now.

Please try again later. Published on Oct 10, 2013 Young American Girl explores the Beautiful and Historic city of Isfahan/Esfāhān, Iran (More Info Below) For those of us who love to travel, perhaps Isfahan is a familiar name. Isfahan is a stunning and romantic city located in central Iran. It sits majestically on both the east-west and north-south trade routes which traverse the country. The city is famous for its astonishing gardens and architecture as it combines natural elements with manmade components to create a unique artistic achievement that reflects the heights of art, philosophy, and religious concepts. Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world. It flourished from 1050 to 1722, particularly in the 16th century under the Safavid dynasty, when it became the capital of Persia for the second time in its history. Even today, Isfahan retains much of its past glory. This truly magnificent city is renowned both domestically and internationally for its many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, splendid palaces, grand mosques, and impressive minarets.

This has led to the Persian proverb "Esfahān nesf-e jahān" which means "Isfahan is half of the world".Today Isfahan is the third largest city in Iran and a major tourist attraction. It produces fine carpets, textiles, steel, and handicrafts. Isfahan also has excelled in terms of science and technology with the many scientific institutes and young scientists it has. PRESS TV Documentaries Iran: My Journey to Isfahan, The City That Is 'Half of the World' | The Huffington Post Iran: My Journey to Isfahan, The City That Is 'Half of the World' 01/12/2015 01:34 pm ET | Updated Mar 14, 2015 Sasha Toperich Senior Fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies The wheels of the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul touched down around 4 a.m. at the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport. The car ride from the airport to Isfahan , the ancient capital of the great Safavid dynasty and in its time one of the largest cities in the world, took about four hours.

Along the way, driving on the modern highway, the ancient history of this mystical land starts to unfold. Well-preserved remains of remarkable centuries-old houses, carriages, and water wells, scattered on both sides of the highway once belonged to the famous " Silk Road " used by traders and merchants on their travels from China and India to the Mediterranean Sea. Not only silk traveled these distances in ancient times, but spices, crafts, technology, cultures, religions -- in short, the whole of civilization. Rocks dominate the landscape. Mountains lying not too far from the road, resonating powerfully with various nuances of brownstone with shapes and forms that are just breathtaking. Everything blends in harmony. The might of old is present all around. Throughout the road, passing by villages and small towns, road signs are placed, with pictures and names of fallen soldiers, Shahids , from the Iran - Iraq war. And there are quite a few of them. Each city in Iran honors their fallen loved ones by placing plaques with their faces and names along the road, so they will never be forgotten. Iranians are very sensitive and respectful to all of their people that died in the eight-year war with Iraq that began soon after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In December last year, in Tehran, a memorial commemorating Jewish Iranians that died in the war with Iraq was raised in their honor as well. Roadside memorial plaque for fallen Iranian soldier from Iran-Iraq War (photo by Sasha Toperich) The surprise Iraqi attack on Iran came on September of 1980, aimed by Saddam Hussein to position himself as the "ruler of the Arab world" out of fear that the long-suppressed Shia majority in Iraq could be inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran to rise up against him and Iraq's ruling Sunni minority. Half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers died, and more than half a million civilians died, with many more injured. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons killing either from direct death, illnesses or injuries, over 150,000 Iranian civilians. Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini banned development and use of chemical weapons to retaliate against Iraqi chemical attacks . His position on this matter was firm even after June 1987, when Iraqi aircraft bombed the Kurdish city of Sardasht's residential areas exposing over 8,000 people to mustard gas. He was explicit that such weapons are against Islamic principles.

The scars of the war are still present and felt everywhere. Graveyard of Isfahan Iranians who died defending their country in the war with Iraq. Some were as young as 14 years old (photo by Sasha Toperich) I walked through the graves at the Shahid graveyard in the Takhte Fullad area of Isfahan. Old and young, some as young as fourteen. They were not soldiers, I was told, but ordinary boys and men from Isfahan who took up arms to fight the Iraqi army. Family members sat quietly next to the tombs of their beloved ones. Next to the cemetery, a beautiful ceramic board reads: "This grave belongs to Hazrate Yusha Naby; One of the pioneers and masters of Bany Israel." As I walked to the tomb of the Jewish Prophet Yusha Naby, buried here, a young boy came to me offering dates. Soon after, another one, and another one came by to all of us approaching the Prophet's tomb. Here, it is a custom to offer dates, so that a person can offer them to God. A box of dates is also placed on the Prophet's tomb, for people coming there to pray, to eat them, and make their offerings.

Iranians are a very patriotic people. In the end, allegiance to their country, standing up for so many centuries, matters more than ethnic or religious background. Iranians praying at the tomb of the Jewish Prophet Yusha Naby, buried in Isfahan (photo by Sasha Toperich) Warmth of the Iranian People Is Just Remarkable Isfahan, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, was first mentioned in 2700-1600 BCE during the Elamite civilization but reached its peak in the 16th century under the Safavid dynasty.

The city is known for its priceless treasures: Si-o-She-Pol (The Bridge of 33 Arches) Joui, Khaju and Marnan bridges; the Agha Nour, a 16th century mosque, among another 12 mosques built from the 16th to 19th century; the Palace of Forty Columns, built in 1647, the Palace of Eight Paradises, built in 1669, the Royal Palace from the early 17th century, and others; a number of synagogues and churches; the stunning Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, built in 1602, and many others. It is due to the richness of its history that Isfahan is also called the "City of Half of the World" (Esfahān nesf-e jahān ast). Modern Isfahan is also home to one of the world's largest steel production plant facilities, along with a major oil refinery and airbase and aircraft manufacturing plant.

One of the bridges and entrance to the Mosque at Naqsh-e-Jahan Square in Isfahan (photos by Sasha Toperich) Taking a journey through centuries of history in today's Isfahan, you will encounter extremely warm people. Iranian hospitality is phenomenal. From the reception desk at the Abbasi hotel , built by the Sultan Husayn of Safavid some 300 years ago - the oldest functional hotel in the world -- to tour guides, salesmen in the famous bazaar -- everybody greets you with warmth. "Oh, you are coming from America. Welcome, welcome!" is what I was told over and over again. In the shop where I purchased souvenirs, the owner was so happy to have a customer from the U.S. that he offered me tea, cookies and sweets, eager to chat while his staff was wrapping the goods I had purchased. They made sure to do it slowly, so I could have time to experience these local delicacies with tranquility and have time to chat with their boss. "We love America and I hope we will be friends again. Please tell this to your friends when you go back," he said. In honor of the new friendships I made in Iran, I just did.

And it is to be continued. Follow Sasha Toperich on Twitter: More: Isfahan - definition of Isfahan by The Free Dictionary Isfahan - definition of Isfahan by The Free Dictionary Eşfahān n (Placename) a city in central Iran: the second largest city in the country; capital of Persia in the 11th century and from 1598 to 1722. Pop: 1 547 000 (2005 est). Ancient name: Aspadana Is•fa•han also Ispahan n. a city in central Iran: the capital of Persia from the 16th into the 18th century. 986,753. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Aspadana , Esfahan Iran , Islamic Republic of Iran , Persia - a theocratic Islamic republic in the Middle East in western Asia; Iran was the core of the ancient empire that was known as Persia until 1935; rich in oil Want to thank TFD for its existence?

Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Persia References in periodicals archive ? Before migrating to Pakistan, she was educated at the University of Isfahan where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B. Information Minister Visits Isfahan City Referring to an increase on Bandar Abbas and Isfahan refineries' output, he added that following transfer of Naphta from Bandar Abbas to Isfahan and transfer of condensates of South Pars to Bandar Abbas Refinery motor gasoline output will increase and kiln oil production will drop in the refinery. Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.

at Homestead Make a Website and List Your Business Isfahan is a large city located almost in the center of today's Iran where the main north-south and east-west roads cross (see location in Google Map). It is estimated that the Isfahan metropolitan area has a population of about 4,000,000, making it the second most populous metropolitan area in Iran after the capital Tehran. It is not well known when exactly Isfahan was first established as a city. But, it is known that its origins go back more than 1,500 years. While Isfahan grew considerably from the early 11th through the 18th century, it flourished particularly during the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century when it became the capital of the old Persia for the second time. ​Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world. Isfahan may be well known for its beautiful historic Islamic architecture. But its talented people continue to produce many more works of art from its world famous Persian rugs to handcrafts and other unique products. Click here to visit sample works of art from Isfahan.

A river called Zayandeh Rood (life-giving river) runs through Isfahan giving the city and its residents more life! Isfahan has a seasonal climates. Summers could be very hot, but not humid, and winters not terribly cold. The total annual precipitation rarely exceeds five inches. Isfahan's Imam Square, formerly known as the Naghsh-e Jahan (meaning portrait of the world) Square, is one of the largest city squares in the world. Around the square sit a number of world-famous marvels of Islamic architecture. The Imam Square is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site . Many visitors believe Isfahan is the most beautiful city in Iran and one of the most beautiful in the world. It features numerous tree-lined boulevards and flower gardens, miles of beautiful parks along the Zayandeh Rood river; 1300 year-old covered bazaars, bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. No wonder Isfahan is called nesf-e jahān meaning half of the world. The city attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over Iran and around the world each year. Isfahan has so much to offer.

Let us visit some of the more favorite places in Isfahan. You decide where to visit first! About Isfahan (Esfahan) Isfahan, Iran: Visiting Half of the World - Heart My Backpack Heart My Backpack Isfahan, Iran: Visiting Half of the World March 30, 2014 When Mina and I met for lunch in Tehran, I told her about my plans to visit Isfahan (or Esfahan) for a few days, and she confessed that she had never visited Persia’s former capital city. “Persians call Isfahan Nesfe Jahan, which means ‘Half of the World,’ ” Mina told me. And so it was decided, Mina would have to come with me. While now a bustling modern city, Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world as it sat on a major intersection of the main north-south and east-west routes crossing Iran. We seemed to stumble on reminders of Isfahan’s past glory around every corner, from impressive squares and tree-lined boulevards to covered bridges, palaces and mosques. It was like stepping into a historical novel , only so much better.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square (also Imam Square, or Shah Square) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest city squares in the world: Rana was particularly excited to see Siosepol, Isfahan’s famous 33-arch bridge: ( photo source ) But as we approached the bridge Mina stopped dead in her tracks and stared in dismay. Instead of a glistening lake lying under the bridge, there was only dry, cracked earth. Where was the water?! A local woman whom we later shared a taxi with explained to us that Isfahan had sent the water to fill another lake area somewhere (…what?), but that they might refill the lake for the Nowruz celebrations (Edit: A couple of helpful readers explained that it is an artificial lake filled by Isfahan’s river, which is now usually stopped by a dam to conserve the water). She then told us that Isfahan’s sites all seemed to be a story of destruction – many of the palaces and mosques had been drawn or scratched on, water was missing from several places, and even the Menar Jonban’s famous “Swinging Minarets” had stopped working properly after a scientist had come to examine them.

Mina and I looked at each other. Was half of the world falling apart? Most of the sites in Isfahan are centuries old, so I guess it’s natural that they need a little maintenance now and again. So the city probably isn’t actually falling apart, phew. Moreover, while Isfahan might be dominated by Islamic architecture, the city is also home to important Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian sites. Mina and I visited the Church of Saint Joseph of Arimathea, built by an Armenian community that settled in Isfahan in the early 1600s. And of course no day on the town with Mina would be complete without stopping for a break in a coffee shop. Mina was pretty critical of this café, which she had heard from a friend was popular in Isfahan. The lights were too bright and the window too open to the street for this Tehran girl! In fact, while we joked about my having a girl from Tehran as my guide to Isfahan and Mina having a Norwegian-American guide, at the end of our three days in Isfahan we decided that we could have made more of our time if we had known some locals who could show us around.

As it was, we enjoyed visiting many of Isfahan’s sites, but the city as a whole left us both a little underwhelmed. Locals boast that it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and while some of its monuments and architecture could certainly claim that superlative, I’m not sure I would give that title to the city itself. Maybe I’m just not enough of an art fanatic or maybe we just didn’t know the best places to go in the city, and maybe I’ll just have to visit Isfahan again someday. We did, however, really love Hotel Sonati, which was just behind Hakim Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in the city. And we enjoyed hanging out at the tea house down the street from our hotel. They even brought out flags so that Mina and I could pretend to be diplomats having an important business dinner (probably not the actual reason, but we enjoyed pretending nonetheless). The bus from Tehran to Isfahan took about six hours and cost 190,000 Rial ($6). We shared a double room at Hotel Sonati and each paid about $15 a night.

Most sites in Isfahan charge 150,000 Rial ($5) for foreigners to enter. PIN IT! Isfahan: Iran's Hidden Jewel | People & Places | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Isfahan: Iran's Hidden Jewel Once the dazzling capital of ancient Persia,Isfahan fell victim to neglect, but a new generation hopes to restore its lost luster Four hundred years ago, Isfahan was larger than London and more cosmopolitan than Paris. The city's most famous bridge, Si-o Seh Pol (Bridge of 33 Arches) is nearly 1,000 feet long and 45 feet wide. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) By Andrew Lawler Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe April 2009 The courtyard is coated in a fine brown dust, the surrounding walls are crumbling and the flaking plaster is the same monotonous khaki color as the ground. This decrepit house in a decaying maze of narrow alleys in Isfahan, Iran, betrays little of the old capital's glory days in the 17th century.

Suddenly, a paint-splattered worker picking at a nearby wall shouts, waves his steel trowel and points. Underneath a coarse layer of straw and mud, a faded but distinct array of blue, green and yellow abstract patterns emerges—a hint of the dazzling shapes and colors that once made this courtyard dance in the shimmering sun. From This Story [×] CLOSE The interior dome of the Imam Mosque. The mosque was commissioned by Shah Abbas I in the 17th century, as part of his bid to turn Isfahan into a global metropolis. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) Four hundred years ago, Isfahan was larger than London and more cosmopolitan than Paris. The city's most famous bridge Si-o Seh Pol (Bridge of 33 Arches) is nearly 1,000 feet long and 45 feet wide. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) The city's grandeur inspired the proverb,"Isfahan is half the world." Here, an interior view of the Sheikh Lotf-Allah Mosque. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) A battle scene adorns the Palace of Forty Columns. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) The interior dome of the Friday Mosque.

(Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) For centuries, Isfahan has been home to merchants, architects and artisans.Here, two women shop in the bazaar. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) A craftsman hammers copper pots. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) A Zoroastrian fire temple sits on a hill near Isfahan. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) Inside Iran's Fury I crowd up to the wall with Hamid Mazaheri and Mehrdad Moslemzadeh, the two Iranian artist-entrepreneurs who are restoring this private residence to its former splendor. When these mosaics were still vibrant, Isfahan was larger than London, more cosmopolitan than Paris, and grander, by some accounts, than even storied Istanbul. Elegant bridges crossed its modest river, lavishly outfitted polo players dashed across the world's largest square and hundreds of domes and minarets punctuated the skyline. Europeans, Turks, Indians and Chinese flocked to the glittering Persian court, the center of a vast empire stretching from the Euphrates River in what is today Iraq to the Oxus River in Afghanistan.

In the 17th century, the city's wealth and grandeur inspired the rhyming proverb, Isfahan nesf-e jahan, or "Isfahan is half the world." After a brutal siege shattered that golden age in the early 18th century, new rulers eventually moved the capital to Tehran, leaving Isfahan to languish as a provincial backwater, which not incidentally left many of the old city's monuments intact. "One could explore for months without coming to an end of them," marveled British traveler Robert Byron on his 1933-34 journey across Asia. That artistry, he wrote in The Road to Oxiana, "ranks Isfahan among those rarer places, like Athens or Rome, which are the common refreshment of humanity." Today, however, the city is mainly known abroad as the site of Iran's premier nuclear research facility. What once was a sleepy town has emerged as the country's third largest metropolis, surrounded by expanding suburbs, belching factories and the choking traffic of more than three million people. Nothing symbolizes Iran's disconcerting modernity more than its launch, in February, of a satellite named Omid (Hope).

In Isfahan, however, hope is a commodity in sharp decline. The elegant urban landscape that survived invasions by Afghan tribesmen and Mongol raiders is now threatened by negligence and reckless urban development. Mazaheri and Moslemzadeh are members of a new generation of Isfahanis who want to restore not just buildings but their city's reputation as a Persian Florence, one they hope will one day enthrall Westerners with its wonders once again. Inside the cool and dark interior of the house that is their current focus, the freshly painted white stucco ceiling bristles with scalloped stalactites. Delicate gilded roses frame wall paintings of idyllic gardens. (Paradise is a Persian word meaning "walled garden.") Above a central fireplace, hundreds of inset mirrors reflect light from the courtyard. "I love this profession," says Safouva Saljoughi, a young, chador-clad art student who is dabbing at a faded painting of flowers in one corner of the room.

"I have a special relationship with these places." The house may have been built in the 17th century by a wealthy merchant or prosperous government official, then remodeled to suit changing tastes over the next two centuries. Even the fireplace damper is shaped in the delicate figure of a peacock. "Ornament and function together," says Mazaheri in halting English. Located just a short walk from the medieval Friday Mosque, the house is of classic Iranian design—a central courtyard surrounded by rooms on two sides, a single entrance on the third and a grand two-story reception room with large windows on the fourth. Rocket attacks during the war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the early 1980s emptied this old neighborhood, and the house was badly vandalized. As Moslemzadeh guides Saljoughi's careful restoration effort, Mazaheri nods toward gaping holes in the reception room, which once held oak-framed stained glass that bathed the interior in a rainbow of vivid colors. "There are still a few masters left in Isfahan who can rebuild such windows," he says. Just repairing the elaborate stucco ceiling took five professionals on scaffolding more than a year.

Trained as a specialist in conservation techniques, the lean and energetic Mazaheri, 38, says he has built a restoration business that tackles anything from old ruins to 17th-century wall paintings. Together with his colleague Moslemzadeh, who is 43 and studied art conservation in St. Petersburg, Russia, they are investing their time and profits to convert this wreck of a home into a teahouse where visitors can appreciate traditional Isfahani crafts, music and art. Like many Isfahanis I meet, they are welcoming to foreigners, refreshingly open and immensely proud of their heritage. Without a trace of irony or discouragement, Mazaheri looks around the half-finished reception room and says, "It may take five more years to finish fixing this place up." Isfahan's history is an epic cycle of fabulous boom and calamitous bust. Here a road traveling across the Iranian plateau east to the Mesopotamian plain meets a path connecting the Caspian Sea to the north with the Persian Gulf to the south. That geography linked the city's fate to the merchants, pilgrims and armies who passed through.

Blessed with a pleasant climate—the city lies at nearly the same altitude as Denver and has relatively mild summers—Isfahan evolved into a bustling township at ancient Persia's crossroads. A taxi driver, thumbing intently through his Persian-English dictionary as he swerves through dense traffic, offers to sell me a gold statue he claims is 5,000 years old. I would be surprised if it were authentic—not least because such ancient artifacts remain elusive, making it difficult to pinpoint the precise era when Isfahan emerged as an urban center. What little has been found of the city's distant past I see in the basement of the cultural heritage office, an immaculately restored 19th-century villa just down the street from Mazaheri and Moslemzadeh's project. A few boxes of stone tools sit on a tile floor, and a couple of dozen pieces of pottery—one incised with a writhing snake—lie on a plastic table. A few miles outside town, on top of an imposing hill, sit the unexcavated ruins of a temple, which may have been built during the Sassanian Empire that dominated the region until the Arab conquest in the 7th century A.D.

Within the city itself, Italian archaeologists digging below the Friday Mosque just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution found Sassanian-style columns, hinting that the site originally might have been a Zoroastrian fire temple. Single Page Previous Page 1 of 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Like this article? ISFAHAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY – Encyclopaedia Iranica ISFAHAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: AN OVERVIEW SINCE ANCIENT TIMES The Isfahan oasis, as a prosperous area of agricultural life, eventually fostered the foundation of a major city—one whose strategic location helped it to dominate the entire area of Iran. At a latitude approximately in the middle of Iran, Isfahan is at the maximum degree of east longitude where communications are still easily manageable between the northern and southern parts of the country. Heading north, one reaches—with a slight deviation to the west—the foothills of the Alborz (q.v.) and Tehran, traveling west of the Great Kavir via Qom and several minor basins with infrequent desert stretches. Towards the south, low passes give access to Fars.

Westwards, one quickly reaches the most densely populated areas of the Zagros, with extensive dry-farming and heavy rainfall, for which Isfahan is the primary base for controlling tribes, especially, in the modern era, the powerful Baḵtiāri (q.v.) confederation. To the southeast, a long depression within the mountains, nowadays followed by the railroad, easily leads to the large cities of Yazd and Kerman, which mark the main rim of the Zagros. Figure 1 . Historical map of Isfahan with its fortifications under the Buyids, Kakuyids, and Safavids. Iranian capital or provincial headquarters? The name of the city of Isfahan from very early on evokes this notion of centrality. One finds it in Ptolemy (Geographia 6.4.4) as Aspadana, meaning “place of gathering for the army” (Spiegel, I, p. 100; see discussion below, iv). But for this positive geographical location to be fully exploited, favorable political conditions were required. Two conditions had to be met.

First, from a strictly geographical point of view, the country had to be unified so that the city would be placed approximately at the center of the land it was to govern, thus optimizing conditions for rule. Second, from a strategic standpoint, external threats to this state had to be deflected equally from all surrounding areas, or else be negligible and not require constant intervention in one direction. In the latter case the country’s capital would tend to be placed at the periphery, near the main source of potential danger. For Isfahan to become the capital of Iran, then, it was necessary that the country be delimited more or less as it is at present and that it be powerful and confident of its might, indifferent to relatively weak external threats. These two conditions were only met occasionally during the country’s history. This was clearly not the case during the first two millennia of political existence. When the first political organization emerged among Iranian tribes with the advent of the Median empire, unification of the tribes was far from being achieved. The center of power could obviously only be located at the core of the area under immediate control (see ECBATANA ).

When the Persians rapidly built the powerful Achaemenid empire from Fars, their historical home, it soon extended beyond Iranian lands by conquering the Fertile Crescent. For an empire that was to succeed the Assyro-Babylonian, the political seat (Susa) was most naturally located in Mesopotamia, which was endowed with an already glorious urban tradition—this to the detriment of the former center in Persepolis. From Mesopotamia the empire looked, in the main, to expand westward, to Egypt and Anatolia. After Alexander’s conquest, the Seleucids, who considered Iran and Mesopotamia as part of their heritage, and whose preoccupation was Greece, naturally maintained this tradition (Seleucia). When a specifically Iranian power re-emerged with the advent of the Parthians (see ARSACIDS ), followed by the Sasanids, the clash in the west with the Roman empire continued to require situating the main center in Mesopotamia (see CTESIPHON ).

By integrating Iran into the vast caliphate territory under the Omayyads and early ʿAbbasids (with their capitals at Damascus and Baghdad), the Islamic conquest could not provide an opportunity to change the status quo. During this entire period, Isfahan’s location could only serve as a provincial city. Yet, under various names and in successive sites, not easy to follow precisely, it seems to have preserved some importance. Over the centuries, the surrounding province retained its original name (i.e., Aspahan, a division of the Sasanid empire, in Moses of Khorene: Markwart, Eranšahr, pp. 28-29; see below, iv), while names of cities, even peoples, were superimposed on the city. During Alexander’s expedition, the name was Gabai (see GABAE )/Tabai (Ptolemy, Geog. 4.4.7), an important locality having an Achaemenid royal residence (basileion, Strabo, 15.3.3; Quintus Curtius, 5.13.2; Polybius, 31.9.3).

It was the capital for the Gabioi people (Ptolemy, Geog. 6.4.3), whose territory, extending beyond the surrounding mountains to “above the +Khuzis” [i.e., Khuzistani people] (huper de tous Souzaious), clearly went beyond the geographical limits of the oasis. However, this capital was obviously the core of the Gabian area, considered a wealthy region where armies could obtain fresh supplies (Diodorus, 19.26.2; Briant, pp. 757-58). This is the name that appears in many texts by Muslim geographers, who for the first time provide a detailed picture of the country, under an Arabicized form, Jay (maintained in the present district name Jey; see i [2] above). During the period following the Arab conquest, Jay was one of two neighboring, but very distinct, cities near Isfahan. The other, some 3 km west, was inhabited in part by a Jewish community and is named Yahudiya by Arab geographers (see below, iv and vi). When exactly were these cities established and how did they become neighbors?

It is very difficult to answer this question, since records preserved by medieval geographers are contradictory and differ mainly on this very point of dating the foundation of these cities (Schwarz, V, pp. 587-90, gathers all the references but does not draw any conclusions). For Jay, if one were to eliminate the strictly legendary accounts referring to figures from the Iranian epic as its founders, most authors (Ebn al-Faqih, Ṭabari, Qodama, Ḥamza) attribute the construction of the city and its protective walls to Alexander. Demašqi alone (ed. Mehren, pp. 278-79; tr., p. 405) attributes it to the Sasanian king “Firuz Yazdejerd,” that is, Pērōz (r. 459-484); this however, seems incompatible with information about Yahudiya (see below). Moreover, the texts cited above on the existence of Gabai during Alexander’s time, seem to indicate that a city already existed on the site and that the conqueror’s contribution, if any, was limited to reinforcement and perhaps reorganization of the urban layout.

As for Yahudiya, the issue is even more obscure. Only one date seems sure. The city undoubtedly existed before 430 C.E., when Isfahan is noted as the seat of a Christian bishopric (Guidi, p. 396.15; Markwart, Eran-šahr, p. 30). As is known, the first Christian establishments in Iran were directly linked to the presence of Jewish settlements (Schwarz, V, p. 590); this excludes the possibility that Pērōz founded Jay. As for the ultimate origin of Yahudiya, an often-repeated tradition attributes it to the exodus of the Jews from Jerusalem after the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar II (587 B.C.E.; Demašqi; Ebn al-Faqih; Moqaddasi; Mostawfi). This is far from being proven, since all the ancient Jewish settlements tended to attribute their origin to this first exodus; and the Arab authors only repeated what was told to them.

If accepted, this claim would be of interest in that it would set a date ante quem for the existence of Gabai (Jay), which seems to have indisputably antedated Yahudiya. The earliest Arab geographers, while recognizing both cities, always tended to consider Jay as the main city, “Isfahan” par excellence (references in Schwarz, V, p. 586). Moreover, it would be difficult to accept the idea of the foundation ex nihilo by the Jews of a new town that had not been a suburb of a pre-existing city. Whatever the case may be, the twin cities, with their land, wealth, and favorable geographical site, attracted the Muslim conquerors’ attention. Arab geographers do not restrain their praise (texts in Schwarz, V, pp. 592-605), going as far as calling this land “a paradise” (Moqaddasi) or “a second Baghdad” (Ebn al-Faqih). However, for the reasons outlined above, it was not possible for the conquerors to make it the capital of Iran, then part of the caliphate.

At the end of the Buyid period, although Isfahan became the headquarters of a quasi-independent emirate, the main political center always remained in Ray, near the Buyids’ original region in Deylam (see vi, below). With the emergence of the Saljuqids, for the first time geopolitical conditions aligned to make Isfahan the capital of a state which, while still formally attached to the caliphs in Baghdad, henceforth exercised full political autonomy (with the title of Sultan given to its leaders) and whose center of gravity was increasingly upon the Iranian plateau. For almost a century, the Saljuqid empire around the “Great Saljuqs” was, strictly speaking, a constellation of Turkish principalities, more or less independent from the main branch, in Anatolia, Syria (Damascus and Aleppo), Iraq, Kermān, and Ḵʷārazm, while the Ghaznavids further southeast were reduced to a state of tributaries. Those emirates on the periphery were faced with external conflicts, but the central dynasty enjoyed a relative calm only disturbed by occasional disputes over succession.

Isfahan’s central location facilitated satisfactory control of relations with the more or less vassal states, and at least nominal coordination of the whole empire. It is therefore no surprise that the city was chosen by Ṭoḡrel Beg, who in 442/1050 transported from Ray “all that he possessed in gold, provisions, and arms, to make it his permanent residence” (Ebn al-Aṯir, IX, pp. 17, 234,). Isfahan lost its central role with the disintegration of the empire of the Great Saljuqs upon the death of Sanjar (552/1157) and under the subsequent rule of the Mongols, who established their Iranian headquarters in the north (Azerbaijan, subsequently Solṭāniya). After the long period of political division that followed, it was only under the Safavids that Iran, until then disputed between the Timurids and the Āq Qoyunlu (q.v.), acquired the territorial unity required for a national capital.

This did not occur until the end of the 16th century, since the constant wars between the Safavids and the Ottomans during the entire first half of the century required the location of authority at this time first in Azerbaijan, then in Qazvin. In 1006/1598 Shah ʿAbbās I chose Isfahan as a central capital for his empire, which was now established approximately within the present borders of Iran. Factors in his selection included the stabilization of the western border of the empire after the peace of Amasya (962/1555, q.v.), the growing Uzbek menace on the northeast, and the European presence in the Persian Gulf that required a watchful eye on the southern shores. Isfahan remained the capital until its destruction by the Afghans in 1135/1722 (see AŠRAF ḠILZAY ). The city was never to have such a status again, since changing strategic considerations to deal with the emerging Russian and Turkmen menace drove the Qajar dynasty at the end of the 18th century to select Tehran (q.v. at iranica.com).

Structure and development of the metropolitan complex. The magnificent urban landscape that has made Isfahan the gem of architecture in Iran and an everlasting witness to its culture thus was formed in the course of two limited periods, one approximately a century, another a century and a quarter. The guiding principle for the urban evolution of the city was the advance toward the river. The twin cities were established some 3 km north of the river, perhaps due to fear of flooding; this was still a concern at a time when the development of irrigation channels within the oasis was not of sufficient scale for their diversion of water from the river to almost completely mitigate this danger. As development of the oasis progressed, natural evolution brought the settlement area nearer the river, for practical purposes (water for domestic consumption and artisanal use, the latter still present today when Baḵtiāri carpets are washed in the river during the season of low water) as well as for recreational and aesthetic reasons. This process has continued up to the modern period. The point of departure for this development was Yahudiya, which had mostly supplanted Jay during the early Islamic period. All the information from Arab geographers indicates that the relative decline of Jay was early.

There were signs of it in the tenth century in the account of Eṣ-ṭaḵri (pp. 182.5, 199.6), according to whom Jay already was no more than half the size of its twin, and it is confirmed by Moqaddasi (p. 225.6). The revision of Eṣṭaḵri’s text in the Gotha manuscript, perhaps of the same period, indicates that all commercial activity was centralized in Yahudiya (p. 199, note a; Schwarz, V, p. 604). This state of affairs may be a consequence of specialization in trade by the Jewish population, which had profited substantially from the Muslim conquest. Jay gradually fell into ruins, as Yāqut already noticed (III, p. 196; VIII, p. 532).

This may explain why Ṭoḡrel constructed his still standing Great Friday Mosque in Yahudiya, most probably on a pre-existing mosque site, and also why he set up another essential feature of power south of the bazaar and facing south, namely the large square for military parades and exercises (Meydān-e kohna) whose location can still be made out today (Gaube, pp. 231-32). There he also had a circular enclosure constructed (ibid., p. 46), inspired by the concept of a “round city” known in Muslim urban planning since the foundation of Baghdad. Given the surface area (approx. 1.7 km2) within the wall, the population of the city could have amounted to tens of thousands of residents. Activity in the bazaar, as witnessed by Nāṣer Ḵosrow in the mid-11th century, was then quite considerable. At that date, a distinctly centralized hierarchy incorporating both wholesale (caravansaries) and retail trade is to be emphasized, as it points to the oldest instance of the classical structure of a central bazaar in the Muslim world (Planhol, 1987).

Orientation toward the south and the river, already evident during the Saljuqid period, became more pronounced later on. In this direction, linked to pre-existing construction by a new bazaar, whose monumental entrance led to Shah ʿAbbās’s large new square for parades, the grandiose Safavid urban design was put on display, with the wide Čāhār Bāg avenue leading to the Zāyandarud as its showpiece. Many monumental bridges were then built: Allāhverdi Khan bridge, Ḵᵛāju bridge and dam, and Canal bridge (Pol-e čubi) were added to the older Šahrestān bridge, whose location further east had been established according to the location of Jay. The city next extended across the river, where the well-off built many residences, and where a significant Armenian settlement established a neighborhood in Julfa (q.v.)—an area with quasi-autonomous status and many tens of thousand residents.

The Iranian metropolis thus became a huge city, whose population, though impossible to ascertain exactly, must have attained many hundreds of thousands at the minimum, based on descriptions of travelers and European residents (e.g., Herbert and Chardin, qq.v.), with a large number of foreigners settled near the bazaar (estimates summarized and discussed in Brown). The city spread out in all directions, not only south of the river, but also westward, where foreign traders established a neighborhood in close proximity to the bazaar, and east towards the former Jay and well beyond. This is illustrated by the fact that a traveler in the 19th century, arriving in Isfahan from the east, passed earth houses in ruins along 16 to 18 kilometers before reaching the city (Floyer, p. 367). Isfahan in contemporary Iran: from decline to renewal. After the end of the Safavid dynasty, indeed from 1722, the city suffered terribly. Following the Afghan invasion and subsequent massacres, it was pillaged on two more occasions, after Nāder Shah’s assassination, by Baḵtiāri and other Lor rebels. In the 1810s a British visitor writes that, “ .

. . one might suppose that God’s curse has extended over parts of the city, as it did over Babylon. Houses, bazaars, mosques, palaces, whole streets are to be seen in total abandonment; and I have rode for miles among its ruins without meeting with any living creature, except perhaps a jackal peeping over a wall, or a fox running to his hole” (Morier, p. 134). In the 1860s a permanent European resident of the country can only speak of the “ruins of Isfahan” and describes its former leisure gardens as having been transformed into wheat fields (Polak, I, pp. 95, 100). In 1890, a British lady traveling from the north, when crossing the city, sees “heaps of ruins” and complains that “ . . . that mile or more of Isfahan was the one disagreeable part of the journey” (Bishop, I, p. 244), until only in Julfa (then approximately 3,000 residents, including a European community in the midst of Armenians) does she find a pleasant environment with well-maintained gardens (ibid., p.

244). As late as 1900, Pierre Loti, who discovers a busy bazaar and luxurious gardens, speaks of “oppressive ruins” (p. 163). Actually, it was only in the 1920s that the renaissance of the city really began, the main driving force being industrialization. The abundant water supply and the central location of the city in Iran then re-emerged as determining factors. The first phase centered on the textile industry. In the early 1920s a pioneering company (“Waṭan,” later re-christened “Mihan”) established itself there with state support, which was vigorously reinforced after 1925 under Reza Shah’s impulse (see INDUSTRIALIZATION ii ; TEXTILE INDUSTRY at iranica.com). The textile industry remained almost the only area of industrialization there until the 1960s; at that time it employed some 15,000 individuals (18,000 in 1972), that is, about 30 percent of the entire country’s textile workers (see xiv, below).

Up to that time the share of ownership by private capital had gradually increased. The second phase occurred in the development of the steel industry (q.v. at iranica.com). The location, in the vast “Aryāmehr” complex some 25 kilometers southwest of the city center, on the foothills of the left bank of the Zāyandarud, spoke volumes in its favor. This state-sponsored heavy industry, constructed with Soviet assistance, was set up near Isfahan at great distance from the source for raw materials located hundreds of kilometers away in the coal basin north of Kerman and in the iron ore mines of the Bāfq region, between Kerman and Yazd. Factors in the selection of Isfahan included a substantial water supply, relatively easy provision of energy by pipeline from the oil-producing provinces in the Gulf, and the concentration there of skilled labor already trained for industrial work. The site first proposed in the late 1960s, at Čamzaman on the Trans-Iranian railway system, although not far from the iron deposits in Šamsābād, was rejected (Korby, pp. 92-93).

Steel production began in 1973 with a workforce of 7,000 and a capacity of 600,000 tons, which was pushed upward to 4 million tons in the 1980s. Around these main plants, a diversified industrial landscape (with an oil refinery, sugar refinery, and other consumption industries) gradually coalesced, placing Isfahan second only to Tehran in industrial output. The main industrial area was established south of the residential area, along the banks of the Zāyandarud (see xiv, below). Linked to this economic development, the population has been regularly growing since the 1920s. While it certainly did not exceed 50,000 residents in the early 20th century, it neared 100,000 in the 1930s, 254,000 according to the census in 1956, then 661,000 in 1976 and 1,266,000 in 1996.

This growth can be explained mostly by high immigration, mainly from the mountainous regions of the western Zagros, near the city, as well as from Khuzestan since the Iran-Iraq War (see map of migratory influx in Hourcade, p. 53). To the city itself, one should add the numerous communities of the broader oasis that now form satellite cities, most notably Ḵomeyni-šahr (formerly Homāyun-šahr) with 165,000 inhabitants, and Najafābād numbering 178,000 inhabitants in 1996. In total, the city and oasis now well exceed 2 million residents, and Isfahan is thus clearly the second largest urban center in the country (see iii [2] and iii [3]). Ali. Bakhtiar, “The Royal Bazar of Isfahan,” Iranian Studies 7/1-2, 1974, pp. 320-47. Mirza Bala, “Isfahan,” in IṟA V/2, 1950, pp. 1068-72.

Elizabeth Beazley, “The Pigeon Towers of Isfahan,” Iran 4, 1966, pp. 105-9. Pierre Briant, Histoire de l’Empire Perse. De Cyrus à Alexandre, Paris, 1996. Mrs. Bishop, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, 2 vols., London, 1891. Wilfrid Blunt and W. Swaan, Isfahan, Pearl of Persia, London, 1966. J. Brown, “A Geographical Study of the Evolution of the Cities of Tehran and Isfahan,” unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, Durham, 1965. Jean-Claude Cordonnier, “Les tendances nouvelles de l’agriculture irriguée dans l’oasis d’Isfahan,” Revue Géographique de l’Est 4, 1964, pp. 387-92. Sherban Cantacuzino and Kenneth Browne, “Isfahan,” Architectural Review 150/951, 1976, pp.

253-322. Jean Chardin, Voyages en Perse et autres Lieux de l’Orient, 10 vols., ed. and annot. L. Langlès, Paris, 1811. V. F. Costello, Kashan: A City and Region of Iran, London and New York, 1976. Šams-al-Din al-Demašqi, Noḵbat al-dahr fi ʿajāʾeb al-barr wa’l-baḥr, ed. M. A. F. Mehren as Cosmographie de Chems-ed-din Abdallah Mohammed ed-Dimichqui, Saint-Pétersbourg, 1866; repr., Leipzig, 1923; tr. Mehren as Manuel de la cosmographie du Moyen Age, Copenhagen, 1874. Ebn al-Athir, al-Kāmel fi’l-taʾriḵ, ed. C. J. Tornberg, 13 vols., Beirut, 1966.

Ebn al-Faqih, Moḵtaṣar Ketāb al-boldān, ed. M. J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1967, pp. 261-63. Eckart Ehlers, “Capitals and Spatial Organization in Iran: Esfahan, Shiraz, Tehran,” in Chahryar Adle and Bernard Hourcade, ed., Téhéran capitale bicentenaire, Bibliothèque Iranienne 37, Paris and Tehran, 1992, pp. 155-72. Paridokht Fesharaki, L’oasis d’Isfahan. Thèse inédite de Doctorat en Géographie, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1967. Ernest Ayscoghs Floyer, Unexplored Baluchistan, London, 1882. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Islamic Republic of Iran, FAO Agriculture Series No. 31, Rome 1998; online at Heinz Gaube, Iranian Cities, New York, 1979.

Idem and Eugen Wirth, Der Basar von Isfahan, Wiesbaden, 1976. Lisa Golombek, “Urban Patterns in Pre-Safavid Isfahan,” Iranian Studies 7/1-2, 1974, pp. 18-48. J. Guidi, “Ostsyrische Bischöfe und Bischofssitze im V., VI. und VII. Jahrhundert,” ZDMG 43, 1889, pp. 388-414. Thomas Herbert, Travels in Persia, ed., William Foster, London, 1928. Renata Holod, ed., Studies on Isfahan, special issues of Iranian Studies 7/1-2 and 7/3-4, 1974. Bernard Hourcade et. al., Atlas de l’Iran, Montpellier-Paris, 1998. Hans Knübel, “Das erste Eisenhüttenwerk im Iran bei Isfahan,” Geographische Rundschau 23, 1971, pp.

368-70. Wilfried Korby, Probleme der industriellen Entwicklung und Konzentratien in Iran, Wiesbaden, 1977. Gerhard Kortum, “Geographische Grundlagan und Entwicklung der iranischen Textilindustrie,” Orient 2, 1972, pp. 68-74. Ann K. S. Lambton, “The Regulation of the Waters of the Zayandeh Roud,” BSOAS 9, 1937-39, pp. 663-73. Idem and Janine Scurdel-Thomine, “Isfahan,” in EI2 IV, 1978, pp. 97-107. Laurence Lockhart, Persian Cities, London, 1960. Pierre Loti, Vers Ispahan, Paris, 1936. Josef Markwart [Marquart], A Catalogue of the Provincial Cities of Ērānshahr, ed. G. Messina, Rome, 1931.

Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi, Tāriḵ-e gozida, ed. ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Navāʾi, Tehran, 1960. Moṭahhar b. Ṭāher Moqaddasi, Ketāb al-badʾ wa’l-taʾriḵ, ed. and tr. Clément Huart as Le livre de la création et de l’histoire, 6 vols., Paris, 1899-1919. James Morier, A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople, between the Years 1810 and 1816, London, 1818. Abu Moʿin Ḥamid-al-Din Nāṣer-e Ḵosrow, Safar-nāma, ed., M. Dabirsiāqi, Tehran, 1966; French tr. C. Schefer, Paris, 1881. Xavier de Planhol, “L’oasis d’Isfahan d’après P.

Fesharaki,” Revue Géographique de l’Est 9, 1969, pp. 391-96. X. de Planhol, “Sur la genèse du bazar,” in Régions, villes et aménagement, Mélanges jubilaires offerts à Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier, Paris, 1987, pp. 445-74. J. E. Polak, Persien. Das Land und seine Bewohner, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1860. Rosamarie Quiring-Zoche, Isfahan im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Ein Beitrag zur persischen Stadtgeschichte, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen 54, Berlin, 1980. Sirus Šafaqi, Joḡrāfiā-ye Eṣfahān, Isfahan, 1974.

Paul Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter nach den arabischen Geographen, 9 vols., Leipzig, Zwickau, and Stuttgart, 1896-1935; repr. in one vol., Hildesheim and New York, 1969; see vol. V, pp. 587-90. G. Shankland, The Planning of Isfahan, A Report for UNESCO, Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council, 1968. Mohammad-Ali Soltani-Tirani, Handwerker und Handwerk in Esfahan: Räumliche, wirtschaftliche und soziale Organisationsformen – Eine Dokumentation, Marburger Geographische Schriften, 87, Marburg/Lahn, 1982. Friedrich Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1871-78. Brian Spooner, “City and River in Iran: Urbanization and Irrigation of the Iranian Plateau,” Iranian Studies 7, 1974, pp. 681-713.

(Xavier de Planhol) Originally Published: December 15, 2006 Last Updated: March 30, 2012 This article is available in print. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 6, pp. 617-622 Ynetnews News - Report: Huge blast heard in Iranian city of Isfahan comment Report: Huge blast heard in Iranian city of Isfahan Iran's Fars news agency reported a large explosion in one of Iran's largest cities, located near uranium conversion plant. Report removed from website shortly afterwards; security officials deny incident Ynet|Published: 28.11.11 , 19:19 Conflicting reports? Less than two weeks after a mysterious explosion destroyed an Iranian missile base near Tehran, the Islamic Republic's official news agency Fars reported Tuesday that a loud blast was heard in the city of Isfahan at 2:40 pm local time, but later removed the report. According to the initial report, search and rescue teams called to the scene confirmed the blast, but reported no injuries. Iran's uranium conversion plant is located just outside Isfahan – one of the country's largest cities.

The report also stated that a security official confirmed that the explosion had occurred, but refused to give further details. The district's security department head Muhammad Mahdi Ismaili told the news agency that he hadn't received "exact information, but the incident is being investigated." Conflicting reports In a curious turn of events, shortly after the initial report was published, the item was removed from the news agency's website, which is affiliated with the country's Revolutionary Guard. Hours later, conflicting reports began to surface, the deputy governor of Isfahan province telling Iran's Mehr news agency that there was no report of a major explosion in the province. "So far no report of a major explosion has been heard from any government body in Isfahan," he was quoted as saying. However, the news agency also quoted another Iranian media outlet as saying that a blast took place at a petrol station in a town near Isfahan. Iranian enrichment plant (Archive photo: Reuters) Meanwhile, the head of Isfahan province judiciary told Isna news agency that an explosion-like sound was heard across the city.

"In the afternoon, there was a noise like an explosion, but we don't have any information from security forces on the source of the noise," Gholamreza Ansari was quoted as saying. The uranium conversion plant is an integral part of Iran's nuclear program, where urania, also known as Yellowcake, is processed into uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6). From there, the gas is transferred to Iran's nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom. Two weeks ago, 17 Iranian servicemen were killed and several others seriously wounded in an explosion at a military base that stored missiles near Tehran. The explosion also killed Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, one of the key figures in Iran's missile program. Earlier on Monday , The IDF head of Intelligence Research Department Brigadier General Itai baron told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "the blast in the site where surface-to-surface missiles were developed can delay or bring to a complete halt the production of the missiles at that site." "However," Baron cautioned, "It must be emphasized that Iran has other development sites other than the one that was destroyed.

Dudi Cohen contributed to the report Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Receive Ynetnews updates directly to your desktop Isfahan | SILK ROAD site_1397_0020.jpg Isfahan was once one of the largest and most important cities in Central Asia, positioned as it is on the crossroads of the main north-south and east-west trade routes that cross Central Asia. The city was the splendid capital of the Seljuq and Safavid dynasties, and is renowned for its beauty, which has given rise to the Iranian saying that “Isfahan is half the world”. Commerce has always been central to the growth of Isfahan, to the extent that the Safavid Shah Abbas I (1588-1629) effectively re-routed the Silk Road through Isfahan and made the city his capital so that his empire would enjoy a trading monopoly. By the seventeenth century, the city attracted not only European merchants but also missionaries and mercenaries, as it became a religiously tolerant centre of mercantile and diplomatic activity in which merchants and travellers from a variety of cultures and religions rubbed shoulders.

Isfahan first rose to international prominence as the capital of the great Seljuq Empire (1038-1194) which stretched from Central Asia to Syria. The Seljuqs had a huge impact on the cultural and architectural development of the city, and the consolidation of their empire was also significant in unifying a territory that had been competed for by diverse ethnic groups in central Asia for centuries; mainly, Arabic, Turkish, and local Iranian peoples. Under the Seljuqs, a new, uniquely Iranian, eastern Islamic architecture emerged in the city, and in particular, the traditional mosque layout (brought to Iran in 749 by its first Islamic rulers, the Abbasids) was replaced by a new design, based around four iwans (vast halls, open at one end), as represented in the Great Friday Mosque, the Masjid-i Jami. The Seljuq Turks excelled in the design of very large vaulted spaces and in the decorative articulation of buildings inside and out using complex brick patterns, and promoted the custom of organizing important urban buildings around an open, a large rectangular town square, known as a maidan. The Seljuqs also introduced large domed chambers into mosques in Iran.

The domed chamber was known in the western Islamic mosques (Damascus, Cordoba, and others), where it usually served as a maqsura, a space reserved for the sultan and his court in the prime position in front of the mihrab (the niche indicating the direction of prayer toward Mecca.) The Seljuqs built unprecedentedly large examples of these domes, the first of which was inserted in the Great Friday Mosque at Isfahan in 1086-7. The Safavid Empire (1502 - 1736) saw a further development of Isfahan, although the city was not chosen straight away as the imperial capital. Shah Abbas I, who reigned from 1588 to 1629, made the decision to move the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in 1590, motivated both by the city's enormous economic potential and position at the crossroads of trade, and by concerns for security, given its central location at a safe distance from troubled borderlands. Favourable historical associations also set Isfahan apart from other Iranian cities – as the Seljuq capital, it associated Abbas with an illustrious dynasty of the past.

The Safavids were a local, Iranian dynasty. It was not until the reign of Shah Abbas I that the city was renovated in a style that broke with Seljuq tradition, with the construction of many of the monuments and buildings for which Isfahan is renowned today. Wealth and labour were used to build bridges, roads and caravanserais to encourage and facilitate trade. The imperial household was transferred there, and followed by merchants and artisans who relocated along with them. At the centre of the new city, a magnificent new maidan (city square) was constructed, some 510 by 158 meters, named the "Design of the World" Maidan (Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan). Its design united all of the facets of the Safavid polity into one spatial diagram: worship (the Shah Mosque), commemoration (the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah), sovereign administration (the Imperial Palace), and trade (Qaisariya Bazaar). Abbas I's designers differentiated the new city from the old historical centre by organizing the street patterns on grids that were not oriented toward Mecca.

The old and new maidans were connected by the winding covered street of the Great Bazaar, which ran for two kilometres and was covered by high stone and brick vaults by the order of Abbas I. English and Dutch traders lived near the bazaar, as Isfahan was home to one of the East India Company's warehouses. Where the Great Bazaar met the new maidan, a group of buildings were built constituting the Qaisariya Bazaar (that is, the Imperial Bazaar, built and maintained by the emperor). They housed imperial manufactures (wholesale silks and fine textiles, goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers), the state mint, a hospital, public bath, and a caravanserai. Unlike the shops of the Great Bazaar, these were arranged on a regular grid and aligned with the new city. Their importance to the regime was represented by the Qaisariya Gateway to the square; no other imperial bazaar in the Safavid realm had such a monumental entrance.

A number of major religious buildings were also constructed in Isfahan in this period; including the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah (1603-1619), conflating the style of a mausoleum and a mosque, and the Shah Mosque (1611-1666) which has a towering 170-foot high domed chamber. Unprecedented use of colour dominates the decoration of the entrance gateways, domes, minarets, and some interior spaces of these buildings. The use of polychromatic tile as a surface ornament was known in other periods of Iranian history, but it was the Safavids who established colourful tiling as the most salient characteristic of Iranian architecture, and this decorative style reached its zenith in Isfahan.

Question: Isfahan is a major city in which country?
Answer: Iran